SPRING 2008: The "birther" movement is born.

Litandmore via Flikr

Rumors about Obama's birth certificate start circulating towards the end of the 2008 Democratic primaries, helped along by PUMA, a small but vocal group of Hillary supporters who refuse to accept Obama's primary victory. Among the rumors: Obama was born in Kenya and his middle name is really Muhammad.

JUNE 2008: Obama tries to dispell myths about his origins.

AUGUST 2008: "Birthers" blitz the courts.

Courtesy of ObamaCrimes.com

Pennsylvania attorney Phil Berg, a PUMA and former 9/11 "Truther," files a lawsuit with the U.S. Supreme Court, claiming Obama was secretly born in Kenya and seeking an injunction to suspend the 2008 presidential election. The Supreme Court declines to hear the case.

JANUARY 2009: Orly Taitz emerges as "Queen of the Birthers."

FiredUpMissouri via Flikr

Ms. Taitz, a Southern California dentist with an online law degree, becomes the public face of the "birther" movement. Taitz files a federal lawsuit questioning Obama's presidential eligibility on behalf of conservative Alan Keyes, who lost the Illinois U.S. Senate race to Obama in 2004. The case is still winding its way through the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

MARCH 2009: The mainstream media decides the "birthers" are lunatics.

APRIL 2010: Arizona House passes "birther" amendment.

Undeterred, the Arizona House of Representatives votes in favor of a measure that would require presidential candidates to submit documents proving they were born in the U.S. Similar bills are introduced in state legislatures in Oklahoma, Tennessee, Missouri and Texas.

AUGUST 2010: More than a quarter of Americans doubt the President was born in the U.S.

A CNN poll, released on the President's 49th birthday, indicates that more than 25% of the American public question Obama's citizenship. Of those polled, 11 percent say Obama is definitely not born in the U.S. and 16 percent say he was "probably not" born in the country.